In the early morning, a strand of sunlight rose from the east, crossed the undulating mountains, and shone down on Baidi City situated at the foot of the hills, awakening this ancient city with a long-standing history.
"Thump, thump, thump!"
Early in the morning, a teenage boy, wrapped in thick cloth bands around his hands, stood shirtless in front of a black pine tree over ten meters high in the Baidi Martial Mansion, practicing his boxing.
The heavy echo reverberated around the black pine. After a long time of punching, a large piece of the black pine's bark collapsed, and the splinters stained with spots of blood scattered in the air.
Bright red blood trickled from his cracked fist, the sight of which was shocking, but he remained unaffected.
"Why isn't my strength increasing? Why, despite training so hard for more than a year, my strength still hasn't grown?" A dark-eyed lad, with sharp facial features like they had been chiseled out, bit his lips, murmuring resentfully, "Is it predetermined that I’m a useless person because I don't have a spiritual beast?"
"No, I can't give up. I don't believe that after squeezing out all my potential, I still can't surpass my limit." Thinking of his foster father, who had been so kind to him but now rested six feet under, the boy's persistence intensified. He clenched his injured fist and continued practicing.
The practicing boy was called Ye Chenfeng. He was a disciple of the Ye family, one of the four major families in Zijin Kingdom, but he was not a direct descendant of the Ye family – he was a child they picked up.
Despite his peculiar status as an abandoned child, Ye Chenfeng had once brought pride and glory to the Ye family. When he was six years old, he exhibited an astoundingly talented ability during a talent test, which shocked the entire Zijin Imperial City.
In Zijin Kingdom, most people lacked the talent to practice. Meanwhile, a sixth-grade talent like Ye Chenfeng hadn't emerged in hundreds of years.
If everything went smoothly, Ye Chenfeng, who possesses the sixth-grade talent, would understandably be accepted into the sect to practice and become a respected figure, with an immeasurable future ahead.
It was due to Ye Chenfeng's astonishing talent that the Ji family, one of the four major families in Zijin Kingdom, was willing to risk an alliance with the Ye family through marriage. They betrothed their little princess, Ji Qingxue, who had a fifth-grade talent, to Ye Chenfeng when they were just children.
But fate played a cruel joke on Ye Chenfeng. On his thirteenth birthday, while he was awakening his spirit beast, it was unexpectedly discovered that his spirit could not form a spirit beast; a phenomena that happens once in a century.
Having a sixth-grade talent for practice indicated a bright future for Ye Chenfeng. But in the great Spiritual Battle, merely having the talent for practice wasn't enough. Only by integrating the talent with the spirit to form one's spirit beast could one defy nature's practising and become a spirit master.
The talent merely decides the degree to which the spirit beast absorbs spiritual strength. Without a spirit beast, no matter how high the talent is, it’s useless.
Just when Ye Chenfeng's life sank to rock bottom, the public laughing stock of the Purple Gold Imperial City, his stepfather who had raised him from childhood mysteriously passed away, and he was even more banished from his family.
It could not be known how long had passed, with his teeth tightly clenched, Ye Chenfeng who was devoting himself to the practice of boxing turned pale, sweat and mist twisted together, indistinguishable from each other.
Feeling that his body was about to become weak, Ye Chenfeng had no choice but to stop practicing, panting heavily.
"Ye Chenfeng, are you still practicing so madly? Don't you accept your fate? Are you squeezing your own potential like this to get some hollow reputation? Without a spirit beast, you're destined to be but a mortal. "
At this moment, a woman appeared behind him, wearing a white floral skirt, her black hair draped over her shoulders, her skin delicate and pale, and her appearance cold. She spoke in a frosty tone.
"I am no longer a member of the Ye family, it's not your concern what happens to me." Ye Chenfeng gently raised his head, glanced at her, and replied briefly.
The woman who reproached Ye Chenfeng was named Ye Ziling, possessed a third-degree talent, her spirit beast was a snow marten, who had reached the fourth level spirit beast realm at just sixteen years old. She was undeniably a genius and the crown jewel of the Ye family in the imperial city.
Add to that, she was extremely beautiful, aloof in personality, exuding a unique aura. Standing still in her fluttering clothes, she consumed all the light.
"You have grown bold to talk to me like this?"
Hearing Ye Chenfeng's cold response, Ye Ziling's brows slightly wrinkled, showing full of resentment.
"I just don't want you wasting your time on a failure like me." After saying this, Ye Chenfeng gave a self-deprecating laugh, then turned his back on her and walked away without a second glance.
Looking at Ye Chenfeng's lonely figure, the anger on Ye Ziling's face dissipated completely. She heaved a quiet sigh in her heart, both for his patheticness and the Ye family's loss.
"I currently have fifty taels of silver, which might be enough to buy some inexpensive medicinal herbs for treatment."
After parting with Ye Ziling, Ye Chenfeng directly headed to the pharmacy in the White Emperor's Martial Mansion, intending to purchase some inexpensive medicinal herbs for treatment, so as to prevent recurrent injuries from damaging his meridians.
Walking into the apothecary, Ye Chenfeng saw Qiao Jingyuan, dressed in a black hollowed-out long dress, which highlighted her tall and elegant figure. With a bit of light makeup delicately applied to her pretty face, she was buying herbs.
Qiao Jingyuan, the young lady of the Qiao family, one of the wealthy families in the White Emperor City, used to be close to Ye Chenfeng at his prime. However, when he failed to generate a spirit beast from his soul, she gradually distanced from Ye Chenfeng and they no longer communicated.
"Well, isn't this our great genius from the White Emperor Martial Academy? How did you get yourself covered in wounds... again?" An eccentric voice sounded behind Ye Chenfeng just as he was about to walk past Qiao Jingyuan and buy a few herbs from the Lian family's and leave.
Resplendent in luxurious clothes, tall and handsome, Di Wanxian strolled in with a folding fan in his hand and two followers behind him. On spotting the tall Qiao Jingyuan, his gaze heated up.
"Do you like self-torture or something? If that's the case, I don't mind helping you out," Di Wanxian deliberately mocked Ye Chenfeng in front of Qiao Jingyuan, trying to attract her attention.
Sure enough, upon hearing Di Wanxian's voice, Qiao Jingyuan, who had just chosen two expensive herbs, slowly turned around. She gave Ye Chenfeng a cold glance, then looked at the domineering Di Wanxian, who was slowly approaching.
However, neither of the men managed to catch her interest. After pausing for a moment, she turned back to continue selecting herbs for herself.
As she was turning around, Ye Chenfeng swiftly grabbed the folding fan from Di Wanxian's hand and delivered a firm smack to Qiao Jingyuan's bottom.
Before a shocked Di Wanxian, who stared round-eyed, could react, Ye Chenfeng stuffed the fan back into his hand and was about to leave when Qiao Jingyuan, startled by the smack, felt her face flush with an unprecedented sense of embarrassment.
The very next moment, an enraged Qiao Jingyuan turned around and upon seeing the folding fan in Di Wanxian's hand, became livid. Raising her fair hand, she fiercely slapped Di Wanxian twice and spat, "Di Wanxian, are you courting death? Believe it or not, I will chop off your hand and disable you."
"No, no, Jingyuan, you've misunderstood. It wasn't me who smacked you, it was him! He framed me!" Di Wanxian stammered, clearly terrified by the fire in Qiao Jingyuan's eyes.
"Di Wanxian, it's every man for himself. Even though Qiao Jingyuan and I are no longer friends, I would never do such disgraceful things to her." Ye Chenfeng stopped in his tracks and said righteously.
"Damn it, it was you who did this, wasn't it? Dare you swear you didn't smack Jingyuan's bottom, dare you?" Di Wanxian almost spat out blood with rage as he listened to Ye Chenfeng's righteous accusations, feeling an overwhelming urge to throttle the man.
"Di Wanxian, whether you did this or not, there is really no need for you to shame her publicly like this. You might have no shame, but she certainly has some," Ye Chen Feng disregarded the grim look on Di Wanxian's face as he deliberately stirred the pot.
"You..."
Just as the ferocious-looking Di Wanxian was about to retaliate, he sensed the sneering gazes coming from the crowd. This irked Qiao Jingyuan, causing a burst of soul force in her mind. The soul beast she condensed was a golden-winged bird radiating white light.
"Whoosh!"
A piercing sound of air friction echoed as Qiao Jingyuan's soul beast, the golden-winged bird, transformed into a streak of golden light, striking Di Wanxian in the chest, and breaking several of his ribs.
"Splurt!"
A cloud of blood mist sprayed from Di Wanxian's mouth. As a level-one beast soul user, he had been heavily wounded by Qiao Jingyuan's soul beast. He fell heavily to the ground, his eyes went dark, and he fell into unconsciousness right there on the spot.
